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David Bronstein, 82, Chess Champion, Dies

David Bronstein, a Ukrainian-born grandmaster who played bold and intuitive chess, wrote one of the classics in chess literature and came within one draw of becoming world champion, died on Tuesday in Minsk, Belarus. He was 82.

His death was reported by the World Chess Federation. No cause was given.

From the end of World War II to the late 1950s, Mr. Bronstein was one of the top three players in the Soviet Union and among the five best in the world. In later years he defied Soviet authorities, at some cost, for not denouncing a defecting player.

In 1951 Mr. Bronstein became the first to challenge the world champion Mikhail Botvinnik, another Soviet player, who had won the title in 1948. The 24-game match was a seesaw affair between two men who disliked each other and played with contrasting styles. It ended in a 12-12 tie, allowing Mr. Botvinnik to retain the title, according to the rules of the match.

The outcome might have been different if Mr. Bronstein had not lost the penultimate game, in which he had a defensible position, or if he had not blundered in the sixth game when he had an easy draw.

For years afterward, there was speculation that Mr. Bronstein was forced to lose so that Mr. Botvinnik, a favorite of the Soviet authorities, might retain the title. Mr. Bronstein denied the speculation, saying he actually chose not to win.

He explained his decision in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” a book about his life and games written with Tom Fürstenberg (1995, Cadogan Chess). “I had reasons not to become the World Champion,” he wrote, “as in those times such a title meant that you were entering an official world of chess bureaucracy with many formal obligations. Such a position is not compatible with my character.”

The obvious question, he acknowledged, was why, then, did he play in the competitions to select a world championship challenger? “The answer is very simple,” he wrote. “In those days there were very few international tournaments, and if one wanted to be respected by the Chess Federation, it was necessary to play to prove that you are amongst the best.”

There were ample reasons Mr. Bronstein would have been a less acceptable champion to the Soviet government. His father, I. B. Bronstein, was arrested in 1937 on charges of being an “enemy of the people” and imprisoned in Soviet labor camps until 1944. He died in 1952. David Bronstein was also Jewish in a state that was openly anti-Semitic.

Then there was Mr. Bronstein’s style of play. Mr. Botvinnik had a scientific approach refined by study of his opponents’ psychology. The Soviet authorities held up Mr. Botvinnik’s playing as a model, saying his success had come from following institutional principles, not individual inspiration.

Mr. Bronstein’s style was the opposite. An intuitive player, he often sought complications and played wild, imaginative games. He wrote, “I always try to vary my openings as much as possible, to invent new plans in attack and defense, to make experimental moves which are dangerous and exciting for both players and also for the audience.”

Mr. Bronstein also wrote “Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953” (1979, Dover Publications), which is widely considered a classic in chess because of its straightforward explanations of strategies and how players think during a game.

David Ionovich Bronstein was born on Feb. 19, 1924, in Belaya Tserkov, a small town in Ukraine. An only child, he grew to be a short, balding, unprepossessing man with a warm manner. He married three times, having a son by his first wife, Olga Ignatieva. His third wife was Tatiana Boleslavskaya, the daughter of the grandmaster Isaac Boleslavsky. Information on immediate survivors was not available. Mr. Bronstein continued to be an elite player for many years, tying for second in the Soviet championship in 1957 and 1964-65 and winning several big international tournaments. But he never again made it to the finals of the world championship cycle.

In 1976, when Viktor Korchnoi, a top Soviet player, defected, Mr. Bronstein was one of the few Soviet grandmasters who refused to sign a letter denouncing him. As punishment, Soviet officials suspended Mr. Bronstein’s monthly stipend, a wage paid to all top Soviet masters that allowed them to devote themselves full time to chess. He was also barred from competing in almost any elite tournament within the Soviet Union and from competing outside the country more than once a year.

Mr. Bronstein’s feelings about the world championship were colored by his egalitarian approach to chess. “I still wonder why people in general have respect only for world champions and not for all chess players,” he wrote. “Is it not clear that we all play the same game of chess?”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C15 of the New York edition with the headline: David Bronstein, Chess Champion, Dies at 82. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe